There are various ways the next Star Trek movie could go, and one of those is Noah Hawley’s Star Trek 4. The Legion creator has been working on a reboot of the franchise for a while now, which he recently revealed is currently “in stasis” but not outright shelved.
While on the press tour for Fargo season 4, Hawley explained what he’s most interested in exploring in his take on Trek, and that’s humanity’s role in the Federation and how that utopian reality was achieved and threatened. Speaking to EW, he revealed that his movie will ask the question: how did the world of the 21st century eventually evolve into a united Earth that co-founded the Federation? And what’s more, what would happen if that peace was challenged?
“I can’t say much about it except it’s an argument for why humanity should prevail and why we should come together and unite, which I think is important – to look at the United Federation of Planets and remember at some point Earth is what we are now and then we invented warp technology and met extraterrestrial life and everybody came together,” Hawley says. “But how? How did we get from where we are now to where they are then? And what happens if that utopian reality is challenged? There are times of challenge and war when we have to prove our values all over again. Maybe there’s a time in the Federation where this ideal is challenged and it won’t survive on its own. It needs to be saved.”
That’s an intriguing way of coming at the Trek universe. You can see how Hawley’s film would have some timely themes of the importance of coming together instead of standing apart, which could be a pretty powerful message given the divided times we live in. The origins of the Federation have been explored before in the franchise, of course, most notably in Enterprise, but it would be fascinating to see the steps of how our world became the united future one that Gene Roddenberry dreamt up.
The filmmaker has previously confirmed that the Kelvin timeline cast will not be returning for his project and instead, he’ll be introducing a brand new crew that we’ve never seen before. Again, this is a bold approach for the film to take. That’s probably why Paramount have got nervous about it and put it on hold. The last we heard, the studio was leaning towards reviving the old concept of getting Chris Hemsworth back to team up with Chris Pine.
We’ll just have to be patient and see which version of Star Trek 4 eventually makes its way to the screen. In the meantime, though, have your say on what you want to see happen by dropping a comment below.
